French Revolution (Copy)

French Revolution (Copy) - Page Text Content

FC: The French Revolution | Amber Rob Period 7 | 1789-1799

1: 1) The philosophical writings of the Enlightenment by John Locke, Voltaire, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau inspired the French people to turn away from monarchy and turn towards democracy. Rousseau's ideas and criticism of and about government control in addition of his writing "The Social Contract" inflamed the French in both good and bad ways. Some agreed whole-heartedly with his ideas about the government leaving leaving the people and the economy alone. Some women however, such as Mary Wollstonecraft disagreed with his views about what women should do. | Causes of The French Revolution

2: 2) The lower classes were upset at their lack of political power in the current government. The injustice of the feudal system infuriated the peasants and they wanted to stop the nobles from gaining wealth and power at the peasant's own expense. after the meeting of the Estates-General, the Third Estate, the lower classes and majority of the population, decided to secede from the government. | 3) Economically France was experiencing major hardship. A financial crisis had begun prior to and continued during the Revolution. The numerous wars in Europe drained the country and when they joined in the American Revolution in support of America they had a national debt of 4 billion livres and had no way to pay it off or gain more credit. This national debt was attempted to be paid for by increasing taxation on the Third Estate and their lower class citizens. | Causes of The

3: Bread riots ensued causing sparks the rebellion needed to gain a foothold. Commoners who could not afford to buy bread banded together and rioted in an attempt to gain attention and find food. | The First and Second Estates, the Priests, Clergy and the Nobility could not be taxed but continued on living in opulence. The taxation issue continued to cause strife in the political arena in addition to causing major financial and economic strain. 4) On top of it all, France had been experiencing and industrial depression that had started in 1770. The depression forced approximately 50% of people living in urban cities to be homeless or unemployed. Multiple bad harvests especially the one of 1788, made grain and food practically unattainable. | French Revolution

4: After a meeting of the Estates-General, the Third Estate refused to participate and declared themselves the French National Assembly and swore an oath called the "Tennis Court Oath", to not disband until a new constitution was created for France. | The angry and hungry French citizens lead an attack on the armory of Bastille in hope of finding ammunition to use to defend themselves against the impending attack of the French Guard. | The attack on Bastille showed that Louis XIV could no longer depend on his Royal Guard because when they arrived on to the Bastille Armory they joined the rebels in attacking and tearing down the building, and releasing the prisoners. | Phase 1: The French National Assembly

5: The National Assembly wrote up the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen in an attempt to force a change. The Declaration followed a similar ideology of that of the American Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. It guaranteed the rights of liberty, property, security and resistance of oppression. It also called for equal taxation of all people and that since before the law all people were equal it said that public officials should be elected based on talent. | Women and some men believed that women should also have equal rights. Olympe de Gouges wrote the Declaration of the Rights of Women and the Female Citizen in response to the Declaration of Men. | Louis XIV refused to give up all his control be ceding to the National Assembly’s demands. Thousands of angry Parisian women marched to Versailles and forced him to agree to the decrees and demands. The National Assembly decided it would be better to have the Royal Family close by in Paris in order to maintain control over them.

6: After Louis XIV was forced to accept the Constitution of 1791, which limited the monarchy, the Legislative Assembly- a new unicameral legislative branch created by the Constitution, was formed and met for the first time. After a series of European wars (known as the French Revolutionary Wars) against Austria and Prussia, during which Louis XIV attempted to regain some of his lost power, the Legislative Assembly decided to dissolve and create a new government, The French National Convention. From there they created a new constitution, abolished the monarchy and declared themselves a republic.

7: Phase 2: The Reign of Terror | The Reign of Terror began with the execution of Louis XIV.

8: Robespierre and the CPS killed 40,000 people throughout the reign of terror; 16,000 were executed and died by guillotine -such as Marie Antoinette and Olympe de Gouges. | The Committee of Public Safety, lead by Maximilien Robespierre, was supposed to confront external threats and domestic uprisings. however it took its powers and used them to their full extent in order to "weed out" their "enemies"

9: The CPS' next course of action was to instate the Republic of Virtue. men and women were called citizen and citizeness. education was reformed and but not widely implemented and slavery in French colonies was abolished. the CPS created controls on the economy in order to control inflation, but since they could not enforce the decrees, nothing happened. Women tried to become more politically active but were deterred. Robespierre also implemented a "de-Christianization" of France. By September of 1794 France controlled the largest army in all of Europe. The end of Robespierre and the Reign of Terror came after the Law of 22 Prairial, which gave Robespierre more power to arrest and execute "enemies of the revolution". Some deputies in the National convention feared him and decided it was time to act against him. They gathered enough votes to condemn and execute Robespierre.

10: Phase 3: The Napoleonic Wars | During the 3rd phase of the French revolution the people and government were trying to decentralize the power of the government. Robespierre was Executed in 1794. Chaos spread through France as a new government tried to take control. In 1795 they created a French directory. The five directors were chosen by the bicameral legislature. The directory was faced by the same problems. from revolutionaries and counterrevolutionaries.

11: That led to the constitution of 1799. This constitution stated that citizens would have to pay taxes. and declared all citizens equal under the law. Also it created a liberal republic. | Napoleon, a former military hero overthrew the directory in a sudden Coup de'tat. When Napoleon seized power he became the French Emperor of the new French government, known as the consulate. He expanded the borders and power of France until it was a leading European power. | The Napoleonic reign came to an end after the untied states of Europe came together and defeated Napoleon a second time, at Waterloo Belgium.

12: End Of the Revolution | Napoleon's new constitution didn't completely end the revolution, but for the most part stopped the chaos. The power of France was divided up with the central government, the directory, and the bicameral legislature. The ideas of Liberty, Equality, and fraternity spread through France and Europe. The French government was ruled by Napoleon and his sons. | The immediate and short term effects of the revolution were chaos after and during every government transistion. the new ideas and radical polices cause other European countries to fear the rebels and step in to crush them.

13: Despite Europe's attempt to stem the flow of ideas, new and different ideas spread throughout France's conquered lands. Napoleonic troops caused an increase in nationalism and in enlightenment ideals. the French changed long-lasting traditions about social and political systems and order.